All residents of Hindustan are Hindus, says Mohan Bhagwat

Asked about his views on the Yoga row, Bhagwat said all of Hindustan's residents will have to conform to the Hindu ideology of living in harmony with everyone.

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Siraj Qureshi

Agra

June 12, 2015

UPDATED: June 12, 2015 18:35 IST

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Chief Mohan Bhagwat

No matter how much Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be trying to diffuse the rising communal tension among Hindus and Muslims in India, some of the saffron organisations are bent upon making this entire exercise futile.

The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) is the frontrunner among these outfits, whose chief Mohan Bhagwat has denied the secular nature of Indian Constitution while talking to India Today in Mathura on Thursday.

Asked about his views on the opposition to Yoga by Muslims, Bhagwat said that Yoga is not mandatory to anyone, but the Muslims should bear in mind that Hindustan is a Hindu country?? and all its residents will have to conform to the Hindu ideology of living in harmony with everyone.

He said that apart from the Hindu nature of the country, everything is flexible and could be changed with time. He said, "Before partition, everyone living in 'Akhand Bharat' was a Hindu, no matter what religious thoughts he followed. Hindu is an identity of the people of this region, not their religion. People in the Arab countries even today refer to the residents of the country as Hindus, since they are from Hindustan and those who left this country during partition, did not lose their Hindu identity, they just changed their citizenship."

He added that the RSS is improving its coordination with other organizations in the country and in this process, the Sangh is strengthening the base of this country.